After Eric Boehlert’s great takedown of Ruth Marcus’s defense of Fox as a news organization rather than a propaganda arm of the Republican Party, it was disappointing to see WH spokesman Robert Gibbs offer up such a lame defense of Obama’s Fox News boycott:

Tapper: It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one –

(Crosstalk)

Gibbs: Jake, we render, we render an opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness that, the fairness of that coverage.

Tapper: But that’s a pretty sweeping declaration that they are “not a news organization.” How are they any different from, say –

Gibbs: ABC –

Tapper: ABC. MSNBC. Univision. I mean how are they any different?

Gibbs: You and I should watch sometime around 9 o’clock tonight. Or 5 o’clock this afternoon.

Tapper: I’m not talking about their opinion programming or issues you have with certain reports. I’m talking about saying thousands of individuals who work for a media organization, do not work for a “news organization” — why is that appropriate for the White House to say?

Gibbs: That’s our opinion.

O’Reilly and Beck? That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? By not attacking the news part of Fox News, Gibbs allows them to perpetuate the myth that they’re a straight objective news organization that just happens to have some right-wing commentators. Better flacks, please.